BIODIVERSITY THREAT
Northern Australia is not the mammal haven it was believed to be, according to a landmark audit of the nation鈥檚 biodiversity. The Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment 2002 found almost 3000 of the country鈥檚 ecosystems to be under threat.
Half of all Australia鈥檚 inland birds are listed as threatened, due to a loss of wetland habitat. Land clearing, which is happening faster than in any other developed country, is mostly to blame. Animals such as the spotted-tail quoll were thought to be thriving in parts of the north, where land clearing is less intense. But the report found they are suffering from exposure to other threats, such as the cane toad.
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SAFE ARRIVAL
Two new astronauts moved into the International Space Station on Monday, after their Russian Soyuz capsule docked safely at 0556 GMT. The American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko will replace the current three-man crew, due to return to Earth on 9 May.
Kenneth Bowersox, Donald Pettit and Nikolai Budarin have been stranded on the ISS since the destruction of the Columbia shuttle on 1 February, which killed all seven astronauts on board. The new crew was carried into space by a Soyuz TMA craft, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday. It was the first manned space flight since the shuttle disaster. The shuttles will not fly again until the inquiry into the accident is complete.